Council Budget 2025/26

At the Council Budget meeting in February 2024, the Budget and Council Tax report including a Medium Term Financial Planning update was agreed for 2024/25, which included the delivery of previously agreed budget savings of £6m, new revenue budget investments of £2.1m and new capital investments of £33.2m. The savings are needed due to reductions in funding from Government up to the 2024/25 Budget, an increasing demand for social care services, increasing costs for the council in providing services due to the impact on significantly high inflation rising market costs, in particular in the social care market.

View the budget set last year

The Council currently estimates an overspend for 2024/25 of £5.3m due to:

• Placement pressures within Children and Young People’s Services and Adult Social Care
• Home to School Transport pressures within Regeneration and Environment and Children and Young People’s Services.
• Increased costs of homelessness due to increased demand.
• Inflation has rebased our costs, over 20% increase in base costs over last 2 years.
• Pressure in waste management on staffing, vehicle costs, disposal costs and related income.

These additional financial challenges have been factored into the current forecast and the impact of these pressures will need to be considered as part of the Medium Term Financial Planning assumptions. The Council is therefore looking to consult with residents and partners on where the Council should look to prioritise expenditure and where it should look to reduce levels of investment.

Where the Council gets it's money from

The Council's current budget is £326 million and is funded from £135 million Council Tax, £96 million Business Rates and £95 million Government funding.

What the Council spends its money on

• £65m on Children and Young People's Service
• £122m on Adult Care, Housing and Public Health
• £55m on Regeneration and Environment Services
• £56m on Central Services
• £21m on Finance and Customer Services
• £7m on Assistant Chief Executive portfolio

The area of highest spend is social care due to demand.

Protecting the most vulnerable children and adults, whilst continuing to provide core services – like road repairs and street cleansing – underpinned the authority’s budget for 2024/25.

The Council Plan sets out medium-term priorities and actions, building on and taking forward commitments made by members to the Rotherham community. The plan is framed around five themes:

• Every neighbourhood thriving
• People are safe, healthy, and live well
• Every child able to fulfil their potential
• Expanding economic opportunity
• A cleaner, greener local environment.